


Tricks

by mpatientdreamr



Category: Criminal Minds, Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-11-08 22:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mpatientdreamr/pseuds/mpatientdreamr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spencer knew his strengths.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tricks

Spencer knew his strengths. He could spout endless statistics, read a person's life from a few minutes of conversation, and he could do magic. Guess which one would actually allow him to pick up women?

Not that he always worried about that but, see, there was this woman. She was new to D.C., he could tell, and she kept popping into the bar. She was skittish and seemed to mostly vanish into the crowd after a few minutes. And she seemed acutely aware of which of the patrons were cops and which were civilians.

She'd unwittingly become something of a fascination for Spencer and he had decided to finally approach her. If, of course, they happened to both be in the bar at the same time. He wasn't going to accost her on the street with playing cards or anything.

When she walked in, eyes skating about the room, Spencer perked up. He didn't necessarily believe in luck and he certainly never planned his life around a series of random chances but he still found himself thinking that it was his lucky night.

She was pretty, in an odd way, blonde hair mostly scooped haphazardly out of her face and features narrow and distinct. She sat at the bar, eyes ticking to the mirror on the wall, then away again.

She saw him approaching, of course, but she'd apparently decided he was harmless because she didn't melt into the crowd like he'd seen her do before.

"Do you like magic?" he asked as he plopped himself onto the stool beside her, pushing the hair out of his face.

"Why?" she demanded, face set in a scowl

It wasn't the most welcoming overture but, then, she wasn't the most sociable of people, either, so Spencer counted that as a win.

He pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and fanned them out. "Pick a card."

Her scowl deepened and she stared a few minutes, making him nervous, before she deftly plucked a card from the deck.

"Look at it, but don't tell me what it is," he said, smiling encouragingly. "Then put it back into the deck."

She glanced at it, then tucked it back into the deck. 

He shuffled the cards, eyes never leaving her face, before pulling out a card. "Is this your card?"

Surprise flickered over her features and she nodded, wary. "Yeah."

Spencer flipped her card over, showing her the back. "Well, this is my card."

One of his business cards was tucked along the back of her card. Her face melted suddenly into laughter and she plucked the business card from his fingers.

She was about to say something when a deep voice boomed through the crowd, "Parker!" and her head shot up. 

Pure pleasure passed over her features and she chirped, "Bye!," as she passed, not even looking at him. That probably accounted for why her body bumped solidly against his on her way past.

He twisted in time to see her pounce a short, long haired, grumpy man, a tall African American male watching her with indulgence. Spencer sighed when she swapped men, showing more animation than he'd ever seen from her. Whether they were interested in her or not, she, clearly, was interested in them. The short man's gaze pinned him and Spencer stilled. It wasn't totally unlike the gaze serial killers used on him when they wanted him to be afraid. He got the feeling this was mostly a warning, though. 

She had an arm slung around the African American male's neck but the shorter one placed his hand on her back to guide her, even as his eyes never left Spencer's. Yes, most definitely a warning.

Spencer waited to turn back to the bar until they were gone, sighing at the turn his luck had taken. He reached for his wallet, only to find it missing. A frantic pat down revealed that his badge and cell phone were also missing. 

Dread pooled in his belly as he looked around. Because he was definitely going to have to explain himself now and Morgan would never let him live it down.

*** ****

Three weeks later, a box appeared on his desk. None of the mail clerks had brought it and his team members looked mystified. Rossi insisted they have bomb squad check it out and as they waited, Spencer noticed something.

He leaned in closer to examine it and, of course, Morgan grabbed his shoulder.

"What're you doin', Reid?" Morgan asked, a bit of motherhen tut-tutting in his voice.

"That's her card," Reid said, distracted, as he pointed to the space where the return to sender information should be. An intricately drawn queen of diamonds sat, smirking cheerfully up at them. "The girl from the bar, the one that stole my i.d. and badge."

They all shuffled back as the bomb squad did their thing and, as soon as it was cleared, Morgan picked up the package and started opening it like it had _his_ name on the front.

"Hey!" Spencer protested, making a grab for it. "That's mine."

"Some crazy chick steals your things, then sends you a present, and you think you get to open it, Pretty Boy?" Morgan asked as he carefully tore the paper off, then opened the box which was inexplicably covered in clowns. They all peered inside and Morgan said, "Huh. Guess she was done with them."

His phone, badge, and i.d. lay nestled in the box on top of a note.

Spencer gingerly pulled it out and read it aloud, not even bother to try to protest that it was private, "My trick was better, P. P.S. I left the gun because Eliot doesn't like them. P.P.S. Hardison says to tell Garcia her firewall has a couple of new holes in it."

Spencer looked up as Garcia gasped and rushed off, muttering, oddly enough, about elven warriors and telling someone's Nana.

The team was mumbling amongst themselves but Spencer's eyes were drawn back to the letter, to the post script he hadn't read aloud. _'Maybe I'll call you sometime. Maybe we can be friends. I like tricks.'_

Spencer was a little in awe of his good fortune. He'd made a new friend, sort of on accident.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Notes: Eventually part of The Alphabets Job, which will be posted after I have a better idea of what’s going to happen.


End file.
